


Oceanside

by khaleecia



Category: DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Anime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 12:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6907420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khaleecia/pseuds/khaleecia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite planning, Aoba has a headache so Noiz and Ren go to the beach without Aoba and experience new things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oceanside

It was a particularly sunny day in the middle of July and Aoba, Ren, and Noiz had been planning a beach trip for at least two weeks. Aoba woke up with a splitting headache but insisted that Ren and Noiz go on without him. He promised to meet with them later when he felt better, saying he didn’t want to ruin the day. Aoba had to nearly push Ren and Noiz out of the house with a bag and a cooler then close the door on them in order to convince them to go without him.

After an unsuccessful attempt of trying to get back in the house to take care of Aoba, and Aoba yelling through the door for them to just go have some fun, Ren and Noiz headed to the beach. They arrived and picked a spot to settle on and spread out some towels.

“It’s hot,” Noiz commented. He was sitting cross-legged on the edge of a towel, swirling the sand in front of him, drawing geometric patterns and smoothing it over before beginning anew. He glanced at Ren beside him. Ren’s eyes were closed and a gentle breeze was moving about, ruffling his dark hair. He was stretched out on his towel, legs crossed at the ankle and the tip of his tongue lying across his bottom lip as he breathed open-mouthed.

Ren didn’t respond. “What do people do at the beach anyway?” Noiz grumbled as his fingers plunged into the sand again. The sand felt weird. It was coarser than he expected and it was warm due to the bright sun. It looked like light-colored dirt, but it didn’t stick to his skin as much as dirt did. When it did stick to him, he was able to see each individual granule of sand. Some of the grains were so light they were nearly white and others were dark enough to be distinctly brown. He had never paid so much attention so something as insignificant as sand.

“Ren?”

Ren was enjoying the warmness of the day. When he was in his Allmate body, he knew the temperature of the immediate environment because he had sensors which measured it and relayed the information to his central computing system. He no longer had any mechanical sensors, and yet he was still able to come to the same conclusion that it was hot through other means. When Ren the Allmate closed his eyes, he went into sleep mode. When Ren the human closed his eyes, he could see that there was still light. He could feel the sun’s rays and he could feel his body responding to it. There was a thin sheen of sweat across his body. He knew this was a physiological response intended to cool his body and he could tell that it was indeed working when he felt a breeze. The combination of his dewy body and air running across him made him feel a small chill. It was momentary, but he was amazed that he was experiencing something that he only knew about in theory. “Hm?”

“Can… can we go in the water?” Noiz had been thinking of what wet sand would feel like. He had been thinking about what the water would feel like. He obviously knew what water felt like since gaining feeling, Noiz was a clean man. But he wanted to know what the ocean felt like. Logically he knew that there was no way that the sun could heat the entire mass of water, so he knew that it would probably feel cold. But what else?

Opening his eyes and blinking rapidly to adjust to the brightness of the day, Ren looked over at Noiz and nodded. “Yes. Aoba wanted us to experience the beach and that includes being in the water.” Even as Ren said this, he knew that was not solely the reason for agreeing to Noiz’s request. He had also been very curious about the feel of ocean water.

Standing at the edge of the water, both men watched the gentle waves go in and out and spread across the dark sand before withdrawing toward the horizon. It was nearing low tide so they watched for a little while as the water crept farther and farther from them, their feet deep in the wet sand below them. Noiz was wiggling his toes in it. He crouched down and grabbed a handful while squeezing his hands into fists to watch the wet sand fall and plop down. “It feels different.”

“What do you mean?” Ren cocked his head as he studied Noiz’s actions.

“The sand. When it’s dry it feels like tiny pebbles. It feels smoother now that it’s wet.”

“I see,” Ren murmured. He quickly dropped to Noiz’s level and dipped his fingers in. “You are correct.”

They probably looked silly to other people. Two grown men were squatting by the waterline, squishing handfuls of wet sand and looking surprised. Neither of them cared what other people could be thinking. This feeling was so fascinating.

“It’s hot,” Noiz repeated. He grabbed Ren’s grimy hand and pulled him toward the water which had continued to run away from them as they played with the mud. He bravely stepped into the cool water with Ren stepping into it moments after him. A small wave went through them, splashing their knees.

“It’s cold,” Ren marveled. They both looked down at the water which came and went over their legs and felt their feet sink down into the earth as the water washed away the sand around them.

This was definitely different than taking a bath or a shower. The muddy water was moving around them and Noiz turned to grin at Ren before swinging his hand across the surface of the water to spray Ren with droplets of ocean.

“Noiz!” Ren covered his face as his a joyful bark of a laugh escaped his throat before returning the action.

It wasn’t long before Noiz threw a handful of mud at Ren which splattered across his chest and dripped down. “Oh!” Ren gasped in surprise. There was a soft breeze again, but it was enough to give Ren the chills as he was only knee deep in the water but soaked from Noiz’s splashing. It was such a strange feeling to feel heat in one moment and cold in the next.

The water felt cold but it was a really nice contrast to the heat of the day. Noiz liked how the sand felt between his toes and he liked feeling the water rush past him. He was also quite enjoying splashing around with Ren. “Argh!” Noiz was looking down and hopped on one foot. “It’s slimy!” he exclaimed, looking at Ren with a shocked expression.

Fighting to keep a laugh down, Ren saw seaweed that had floated to them unnoticed during their play fight and wrapped itself around Noiz’s ankle.

“Ren! Noiz!” a voice, followed by laughter, called to them from a short distance. Aoba had finally arrived and found them. He was amused when he saw two grown men splashing around on the shore. He was jubilant when he realized those two grown men were Ren and Noiz. When he yelled out their names, they froze. Noiz was on one foot, reaching toward a mass of green on his ankle and Ren was stretching his arm to help Noiz. They made quite the funny sight.

“Did you two remember to put on sunscreen?” Aoba asked as he got near them and watched as their eyes became round. A sunburn was one thing they would be happy not to experience.


End file.
